Cheating Death

Image Credit: Barnes and Noble

Popular M.D. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has recently released a book called Cheating Death.  In it, he explains how recent advances in medical technology can increase our survival rate in accidents and health issues tenfold.  The path this technology is on will eventually lead to the human race being able to effectively “cheat death” and die on their own terms–or not at all.

Of course this will create some philosophical issues, but for now, I’m simply examining the book itself.

CompSci: Virtual Reality and the Medical Field

Image Credit: engin.umich.edu

I was inspired to write this article after reading one of the closing chapters in Unweaving the Rainbow:  Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins that I mentioned in a previous post.  Dawkins discusses the implications virtual reality has on areas of science, medicine, and everyday life.  The ideas he posed about this in Unweaving the Rainbow were mere hypothetical and “in theory” situations 13 years ago, but now, I curiously wonder why his ideas aren’t given more attention.

I say “his” ideas, but what I mean to say is the ideas of those in the virtual reality field, which is all too often overlooked as a branch of science intended for computer nerds intent on making the next great video game console.  It’s a sad reality that such a groundbreaking science isn’t respected enough.  Thankfully, those doing the research for virtual reality don’t seem too affected by the stereotype.

New Richard Dawkins Book

Image Credit: RichardDawkins.net

Another well written book by Richard Dawkins is hitting stores this month.  The Greatest Show on Earth:  The Evidence for Evolution is the latest in the ever growing series of books by Professor Dawkins on evolutionary Biology and the public.  You can read the entire first chapter of this book now, before its release, courtesy of RichardDawkins.net.  I know I’ll be adding this book to my library when it becomes available.  You can preorder the book from sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and RichardDawkins.net.

Expect a review after I read the book.

Coincidentally, I am in the process of finishing one of the most beautifully written books on science, also by Richard Dawkins.  Unweaving the Rainbow:  Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder is a take from the view of a scientist on the poetic nature of science and the implications such beauty and poetry has on life, and poses this as an alternative to the delusional ideas of religion, astrology, psychic ability, etc.

While Dawkins (surprisingly modestly) claims he has little or no poetic

Image Credit: web.mit.edu

ability, the book is beautifully crafted and opens one’s eyes to the true magnificence of science.  Filled with beautiful imagery and loads of information, I recommend this book to anyone interested in science or curious how beautiful science makes our world.

Anyone who appreciates the beauty of science should add this book to their library.  It’s an exciting read.

The Truth About Dinosaurs

While reading The Blog of the Airtightnoodle I came across a post that contained disturbing information. Apparently, a home schooling mom wrote a book that totally destroys all the facts about dinosaurs and conveniently explains them in accordance with a literal seven day creation as outlined in Genesis, the first book of the Holy Bible.

Read the post here.

Dawkins to Write Children’s Book

Professor Richard Dawkins recently went into retirement after years of serving on numerous scientific boards, doing research and teaching.  After tackling topics like gene-based evolutionary biology, God, and organized religion, Dawkins is taking on a new opponent:  Harry Potter.

Book Recommendation

Ironically, a few days ago a friend recommended I read a book called Blasphemy by Douglas Preston, which is strongly related to the post below about the Hadron Collider.  It is a fiction book, which I normally don’t read, but this is a fine work and is incredibly interesting.  Here is a quick summary courtesy of Wikipedia:

“The world’s largest supercollider, known as Isabella, is constructed inside Red Mesa, hoping to learn the physics behind the Big Bang theory.

A group of a dozen scientists, handpicked by Nobel Prize winning Gregory Hazelius are sent to work on the project, and what they discover must be hidden from the world at all costs. Meanwhile, an ex-CIA agent named Wyman Ford attempts to familiarize himself with them and learn their secret.”

The scientists keep powering the system to 99.9% but it keeps crashing, and when it crashes, something incredible happens.  They are given messages, the first one being Greetings.  The researches believe it is a programming or hardware error but it turns out it is God communicating with them.

Whether you like science or not (and if you don’t, why are you here?) you should check out this book.